Garden in review: Part 1

I sort of hate to do this post at all because I really feel like a dismal failure when it comes to being a gardener, especially this year. But I want to review our garden selections and harvest each year so that we know better what to do (or what not to do, as may more often be the case) for next year. Here's what we planted, and here are my notes. And really, this is more for my record than anything else.

APPLES. [2 trees: Yellow Transparents] Oh my lands, I love our apple trees. But this is our last year for our big old apple tree. ~sob~ It's old and rotting from the base of the tree, so we're going to have to take it out. We planted a new tree, same variety, but it will take a LONG time for our younger trees to produce the kind of fruit our old tree was producing for us. Last year I made apple-pie filling with our apples, so this year I made lots of applesauce. Notes: Apple-picking time is mid-July, beginning of August.

Main garden
STRAWBERRIES. [10 plants] Mmm. These were *so* much fun for the boys to eat from. We'd raised the beds from this year to last, and that was a good thing. Less slugs that way.

RHUBARB. [2 plants] Mmm. I love this stuff. Big mistake to put these next to our tomato plants, as the tomatoes began to overtake them. We had two "pickings", one in July and another that we just recently picked. I'd love to get more of these plants.

GRAPE TOMATOES. [2 plants] One plant would be plenty, should we choose to do these again. We have had tomatoes coming out of our ears. The reason I wanted to plant these was because I wanted grape tomatoes on my salad. That didn't really EVER work out, though, considering the fact that our lettuce was done in July and our tomatoes began in August. No lettuce for all those tomatoes. (Hence, the necessity for these kind of notes.) And we don't regularly eat tomatoes, so... ??? We've been trying to use them here, and give them away, too, but many have gone to waste. *Sigh* I did wonder at some point this month if I could dry these, but never looked into it.

CARROTS. [6 short rows: 3 rows of multi-colored carrots (purples, yellows, whites, reds) for the kids, and 3 rows of regular carrots]. Every year I think I thin the carrots enough and then... they're still too scrunched as they get bigger. Also, there's a reason, we think, that the orange variety is favored: we think they're more flavorful, and they seemed to grow better.
Next year: be ruthless when it comes time to thin. Find a carrot variety that grows longer carrots. (Ours are too short, usually about 3-4 inches.)

LETTUCE. [6 heads of romaine, 6 heads of green leaf] This was our first year for planting lettuce. I *loved* having lettuce in my garden! We ate more salads this spring/summer than in previous years. We will definitely be doing this again, although I need to find out about a second planting. (I think I heard somewhere that you can replant them when they go to seed and get another crop for the fall? If anyone knows anything about this I'd love to hear it.) Notes: Our lettuce was done in mid to late July.

CABBAGE. [6 heads] First year for cabbage, too. I had all these visions of coleslaw (which I love, however I don't actually have a recipe for it). Someone besides me was obviously having their own visions of cabbage meals because nearly every head was split open and ravaged by some creature or insect (though I have no idea what). My mom was the only one (besides the pest) who ate any of our cabbage. She said it was delicious. I think we will try this again next year, but just keep a closer watch on it. And maybe do some research as to what was eating it. It wasn't slugs, I do know that. We were great about putting out the slug bait this year. A question, then, for you: 1)if you have a good coleslaw recipe, I would love it.

ONIONS. [Walla walla sweet onions. 1 long row in the back garden, 3 short rows in the herb garden] I love my onions. These are so practical and I use them in many meals. It is so handy to send one of the kids out to get an onion as I'm making a meal (or the tops, when my recipe calls for green onions). Now I just have to figure out how to store them so they'll keep for awhile. I have maybe 20-30 left.

CUCUMBERS. [3-4 plants] This was more than enough last year, but this year these didn't take so well. I'd have to ask Mark to be sure but if I remember correctly, these were getting munched on by something early on and we salvaged them and maybe that's why they didn't take. I think we got 4 or 5 good-sized cucumbers, and a handful of littler ones. But we love cucumbers, so... more plants next year. Also, I'm thinking we should move these to a different location in our garden. (This year they were along the front fence, closer to the house).

CORN. [5 full rows] Corn was the thorn in our side this year. We bought supersweet corn, and Mark ended up having to plant it three times. Finally the third planting took. Or so we thought. We got about 4 ears ALL SUMMER. Most stalks are short, and the taller stalks that have ears never got a chance to ripen. *Sigh*. This was a huge disappointment. No corn to eat, a waste of time for all that planting, and (most frustrating to me): the corn takes up the MOST space in our garden.
Next year: We're taking a break from corn.

BEANS. [3 poles, 5 plants around each pole] This was our first year to try pole beans. In the past we've done bush beans. We like bush better and will return to those next year. We completely slacked in getting our beans harvested this year. The first picking didn't give me enough to can, so I waited for the second picking. By the time we got around to picking them, they were too ripe. We picked them anyway but it took me a couple of days to get to them. When I did- most had gone bad.
Next year: Concentrate on beans, not corn. Because these two things take up the most space in our garden; Mark and I have decided to focus on one crop per year. One year we'll do beans only, the following year: corn only. (That is, if we dare try corn again.)

SUNFLOWERS. [1 row along the fence in our garden] We always plant a row of sunflowers-- just for their cheery countenances. We will keep doing this. We've never actually done anything with the seeds. Probably because the neighborhood squirrels get to them first!

Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3.